The NY Times reports that the demand for the end to public shaming arose out of sympathy for prostitution suspects:

The new regulations are thought to be a response to the public outcry over a recent spate of “shame parades,” in which those suspected of being prostitutes are shackled and forced to walk in public.

Last October, the police in Henan Province took to the Internet, posting photographs of women suspected of being prostitutes. Other cities have been publishing the names and addresses of convicted sex workers and those of their clients. The most widely circulated images, taken this month in the southern city of Dongguan, included young women roped together and paraded barefoot through crowded city streets.

The police later said they were not punishing the women, only seeking their help in the pursuit of an investigation.

The public response, at least on the Internet, has tended toward outrage, with many postings expressing sympathy for the women. “Why aren’t corrupt officials dragged through the streets?” read one posting. “These women are only trying to feed themselves.”

A recent NY Times story maintains that the Tiananmen Square protests are regarded by Chinese students today as “almost a historical blip,” although it is not as hard to get information about them as it used to be. 7 out of the 8 Peking University students interviewed for the article were able to download a banned documentary on the protests and watch it in their dorm rooms, for example.

5 years after I sat in Patti’s kitchen looking at pictures of the massacre, I played frisbee in Tiananmen Square.

The one detail I remember vividly from the secondhand account of Tiananmen I heard was that the person whose story it was survived by hiding in a tree from the Chinese military for days. How many days, I don’t know for sure.

In an article Monday headlined “American band releases album venomously attacking China,” the Global Times said unidentified Chinese Internet users had described the album as part of a plot by some in the West to “grasp and control the world using democracy as a pawn.”The album “turns its spear point on China,” the article said.

At long last, the first song from the long-awaited (although we’re not sure how much-anticipated) new Guns N’ Roses album Chinese Democracy is here. Idolator tipped us off to this streaming download:

…and we, like many others, have given it a few listens. Here’s our take, the track has legitimately Slash-y axework, it features Axl-squeal-voice and tough-guy-Axl-voice, and–AND submits the words “nation” and “masturbation” in one lyrical breath. Wow. We mean… WOW.

Okay, so it’s clear that these sexy bitches are no longer the men we’re rocking to…

…but they’re still trying. And we don’t hate what they’re doing (or that they’re doing it) entirely. We just hate it…mostly.

Guns N Roses has taken its sweet-ass time finishing up their ever-forthcoming album, Chinese Democracy, and after over a decade, even the most straggly of believers have given up hope (don’t worry… Jen and I were never really holding our breath, naw mean?).

1) The promise of free carbonated prune juice (hey, I know I said I love it, but I’m just me).

2) The promise of Chinese Democracy (I’ve certainly never been partial to the title, nor the proposed album art, nor the idea of listening to an album that has been crafted over the course of at least 4 really terrible musical movements).

3) The ugly digs at GNR former members Slash and Buckethead. They moved on! Wouldn’t you?